4 May 2004 -- Macedonia authorities issued an arrest warrant today for former Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski, charging him with complicity in the deaths of six Pakistanis and an Indian in 2002.

Parliament is scheduled to consider tomorrow whether to strip from Boskovski his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

A Macedonian police unit gunned down the seven Asian men in March 2002 as they got out of a van in the village of Rastanski Lozja. Police reported at the time that they seized a number of weapons and they claimed to have broken an Islamic terrorist ring.

Macedonian authorities say they have since concluded that the foreigners were illegal residents and that the police unit fabricated the terror story to win approval from the international community.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced today that it has asked Macedonia for details of the investigation.